THREE CEMETERIES

Three CEMETERIES

3 photographs, text and sound, 2009

Donghwa Gyeongmo Park, Paju, South Korea

This public cemetery is dedicated to those who lost their homeland in North Korea because of the division. The yard is demarcated into North Korean administrative districts. The land of North Korea is in sight from the “best spot.”

Sangpae-dong Cemetery, Dongducheon, South Korea

Officially 1224 bodies are buried here of mostly anonymous female sex workers who worked at the U.S. military campside town in Dongducheon. Camp Casey, Camp Hovey, Camp Castle, Camp Nimble, and Camp Gimbols are the U.S. army bases in Dongducheon. U.S. soldiers called the area “Little California.”

Jeokgun-myo (The Cemetery of the Enemies), Paju, South Korea

The cemetery contains anonymous North Korean and Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War. North Korean armed spies who were killed in South Korea are also buried here. North Korea denies the dispatch of spies to the South. The graves face North.